Voltage regulation

In electrical engineering, particularly power engineering, voltage regulation is the ability of a system to provide near constant voltage over a wide range of load conditions.

Electrical power systems

In electrical power systems it is a dimensionless quantity defined at the receiving end of a transmission line as:

$Voltage Regulation(VR) = \frac{V_{nl} - V_{Rated}}{V_{Rated}} \times 100\%$

where V_nl is voltage at no load and V_Rated is voltage at full load. A smaller value of VR is usually beneficial.

The V.R. formula could be visualized with the following; "Consider power being delivered to a load such that the voltage at the load is the load's rated voltage V_Rated, if then the load disappears, the voltage at the point of the load will rise to V_nl."

Electronic power supply parameters

The quality of a system's voltage regulation is described by three main parameters:

Parameter	ST	Measure of the ability to maintain a constant output voltage, regardless of variations in temperature of electrical components within the system, especially semiconductor based devices.

Sometimes, the term voltage regulation is used to describe processes by which the quantity VR is reduced, especially concerning special circuits and devices for this purpose, voltage regulators. Voltage regulators are an important part of power systems and power supplies.

Feeder regulation

Distribution regulation involves a "regulation point": the point at which the equipment tries to maintain constant voltage. Customers further than this point observe an expected effect: higher voltage at light load, and lower voltage at high load. Customers closer than this point experience the opposite effect: higher voltage at high load, and lower voltage at light load.

See also

• Voltage regulator